Men's Basketball Release - 73 Reunion - Guilford College

Greensboro, NC -- The members of Guilford College's 1972-73 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) national championship men's basketball team gathered May 17 on the occasion of the team's 30th anniversary. Nine of the 10 letter winners, plus head coach Jack Jensen and other administrators from the club were recognized at a barbecue dinner at Guilford's Ragsdale House. The event is part of a special Guilford Athletics reunion.

Guilford's first national championship team, the 1972-73 squad compiled a 29-5 record and became the first unseeded club to win the NAIA Basketball Tournament. The Quakers earned a trip to the national tourney in Kansas City with a 74-69 win over Winston-Salem State in the NAIA District 26 finals. Once in Kansas City, Guilford moved through the 32-team field with wins over Keene State, Valdosta State, Westmont, and Augustana. The Quakers downed eighth-seeded Maryland-Eastern Shore, 99-96, in the championship game.

Three members of the 1972-73 team played in the National Basketball Association (NBA): M.L. Carr '73, World B. Free, and Greg Jackson '74. Carr, a 1972-73 All-American, played in the NBA with the Detroit Pistons and Boston Celtics. He led the NBA in steals with Detroit in 1978-79 and played on Boston's world championship teams in 1981 and 1984. A former Celtics head coach and general manager, Carr is a businessman and active member of Guilford College's Board of Trustees.

Free became the first freshman to win the Chuck Taylor Tournament MVP award after scoring 120 points in Guilford's title run. He was a two-time All-American for the Quakers before heading to the NBA where he scored 17,955 points in 13 seasons. Free works in the Philadelphia 76ers' front office in the community relations department as the team's Ambassador of Basketball.

Jackson led the Quakers in assists and field goal percentage in the championship season and scored 1,200 points in his Guilford career. A fifth-round draft choice of the New York Knicks in 1974, Jackson also played with the Phoenix Suns where he developed a reputation as a talented defensive player. He serves as a hospital administrator in Coney Island, NY, and is the director of the Brownsville Recreation Center in New York City.

Other members of the 1972-73 team expected this weekend include: Teddy East '73, a 1997 inductee into the Guilford Athletics Hall of Fame who resides in Winston-Salem, NC, and works as a supervisor for probation and parole for the N.C. Department of Corrections; Robert Kent '76, a 1997 Guilford Athletics Hall of Fame inductee the and a teacher and boys' basketball coach at Page High School in Greensboro; John Ralls '76, a 1996 Hall of Fame inductee and a seven-time state champion coach of Ledford (NC) High School's girls' basketball and softball teams; and Robert Fulton '74, a 1993 Hall of Fame inductee who coached the Quakers' baseball team for 13 seasons before accepting a teaching position at Kernersville (NC) Glenn High School where he also coaches the boys' basketball and softball squads.